Sanders hires veteran progressive operative to manage 2020 bid

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has hired veteran Democratic operative Faiz Shakir to manage his 2020 presidential campaign, a spokesperson for the Vermont senator confirmed Tuesday.

The news of Shakir’s hiring came hours after Sanders became the latest candidate to throw his name into the running for the Democratic presidential nomination. 

The Daily Beast first reported the hire on Tuesday.

{mosads}Shakir is well-connected in liberal circles. He’s a former vice president for communications at the Center for American Progress and previously worked as an adviser to former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). 

He joins Sanders’s campaign from the American Civil Liberties Union, where he most recently served as the group’s national political director.

Jeff Weaver, who managed Sanders’s insurgent 2016 White House campaign, said last month that he would not reprise that role in 2020, though he’s expected to serve in an advisory capacity.